Massachusetts New Coronavirus Daily Case Count Dips Below 4,000

BOSTON, MA — Nearly one full week after Massachusetts took a step back in reopening — closing some industries, reducing capacity on many others and ordering stricter enforcement of indoor dining protocols — the state's positive test average has stabilized at about 6 percent.

The state reported 3,995 new cases on Saturday — down from several recent days when the new case count was more than 5,000 — and an average positive test rate at 6.01 over the past seven days.

The seven-day positive test average as of Friday was 6.13 percent.

The seven-day positive rate average was at 3.3 on Nov. 21, rose quickly in the days after Thanksgiving before peaking at 6.2 as the majority of cities and towns in the Commonwealth moved into the state's "high risk" category for community spread, and has stabilized over the past two weeks.

The daily report shows that of the 81,282 estimated active cases across the state, 12,482 of them are among those between 20 and 29 years old, with 10,413 cases among those in the second most prevalent age group of 30 to 39 years old.

Saturday's report did include an increase in hospitalizations from 1,874 to 1,927. There were 383 people in intensive care statewide.

This week's storm has contributed to varying numbers of tests being reported per day. While positive cases were down from 5,632 on Friday, the number of tests reported was also down to 80,214 from 106,034 on Friday.

This week's report comes the day after Cambridge-based Moderna received the second emergency-use vaccine approval for use in the United States.

Officials said up to 6 million doses of the two-shot vaccine could be shipped in the next couple of days to mostly hospitals and nursing homes across the country.

More Patch Coverage: Cambridge-Based Moderna's Coronavirus Vaccine Gets Emergency OK

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This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch